Terrence Epie
Terrence Epie (IHTM 2019)
Director of Operations and Business Development African Trauma Initiative
Background
Since July 2022, Terrence has been working with the University of Kansas Medical Center (KUMC) on a project to improve the quality of trauma care in all major trauma centres in Africa by 2035. The initiative looks to transform the centres into self-sustaining units delivering state of the art care.
Before IHTM, Terence worked in Cameroon as a senior technical specialist with FHI 360 on a CDC funded HIV project where he supported national partners on project design, implementation and reporting of indicators in line with meeting the UNAIDS 95-95-95 target.
Why IHTM?
Terrence’s experience prior to IHTM was purely clinical and he realised that in order to really make a difference and to start thinking like a global health practitioner he needed more skill sets.
Speaking about the MSc, Terrence says,
‘The most rewarding aspect of IHTM for me was the diverse set of skills that the Faculty can teach. They are experts and leaders in their fields with first-hand experience.’
Impact
Terrence continues,
‘IHTM had a direct, practical impact on my first role, post the MSc, where I led a national evaluation of Cameroon’s community antiretroviral dispensation strategy and a data quality assessment (DQA) for a $18 Million USAID supported HIV project.
‘The statistics, data analysis and mixed methods and evaluation teaching were particularly useful. As country lead, I was involved with designing the project protocol and implementing qualitative and quantitative methodology and using the results to influence policy change and develop new strategies. This put into practice many of the skills I had acquired from IHTM.’
Terrence adds that IHTM changed the way he approaches his work. The MSc looks at multiple ways to solve a problem and the course teaches the importance of evaluating a range of ideas rather than assuming there is a single solution. He has also learnt to break a problem down to its constituent parts and look at each of those before tackling the ‘big picture’.
The last word
‘IHTM opened my eyes to how we can use knowledge to achieve goals, it was a game-changer. I now want to combine my clinical, global health and MBA skills, to address the high burden of trauma in Africa using a global orthopaedic surgery approach.’